It’s kind of of a wierd second for VR. Whereas Meta as soon as championed the business, it has been closing studios and waffling on the metaverse (a phrase I did not hear as soon as in my demo, by the best way). And whereas it is saying some new video games alongside the VR glasses, together with the newest iteration of Beat Saber, I do not assume gaming will probably be a main use case.
As a substitute, Meta appears to be positioning its VR glasses as extra of an leisure and productiveness machine. I used to be in a position to watch some 3D content material — a Billie Eilish live performance and an NBA recreation — that was particularly filmed for the machine and it felt extra immersive than even the everyday VR viewing expertise.
Karissa Bell for EngadgetHowever I used to be extra intrigued by how Meta is considering productiveness. You may join the glasses to a Mac or PC to make use of as a distant desktop. I attempted this out with a Floor laptop computer. The laptop computer’s show was darkish however I may see a three-window setup in entrance of me, with the flexibility to reposition the home windows and even transfer into an ultrawide mode.
There’s additionally a considerably confusingly named “Floor Keyboard” that turns any flat floor in entrance of you right into a keyboard and trackpad. All I needed to do was lay my arms on the desk and a digital keyboard and trackpad appeared.
The keyboard was “full-sized” in keeping with Meta, and after I checked out it alongside my arms it did appear near the size of the laptop computer keyboard I am at the moment typing on. However one thing in regards to the perspective made it really feel a little bit smaller and extra cramped. Plus, the dearth of haptic suggestions made the expertise really feel a bit odd. I used to be nonetheless in a position to kind out just a few sentences with comparatively little effort, although, so it’d really feel extra pure over time.
MetaNonetheless, I am a little bit skeptical that folks need to work this manner. Because of the comparatively restricted discipline of view, I needed to bodily flip my head round to see the contents of every window and could not see all three directly. However I additionally spend a lot of my laptop computer time writing in Google Docs and studying internet pages, duties that are not essentially enhanced by the immersive atmosphere in VR. I may see how vibe coding or design-focused work would possibly profit from this type of setup.
In some methods, the Meta VR Glasses looks like the corporate’s approach of attempting to make VR {hardware} extra broadly interesting. By emphasizing “immersive leisure” and productiveness, Meta can now attain people who find themselves intrigued by one thing like Android XR (and even the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional) however by no means noticed a lot utility in a Quest headset. It additionally helps that {hardware} developments made VR in a glasses-like kind issue attainable within the first place.
I’ve solely ever been an off-the-cuff VR person, however I believe it is an strategy that makes a number of sense in 2026, even when it is likely to be a disappointment to some VR followers. I additionally anticipate we are going to doubtless get much more information and updates about upcoming content material from Meta over the subsequent few months earlier than the Meta VR Glasses’ anticipated ship date subsequent spring.
